When the World Ended
by The Spicy Microwave
Summary: This story begins with the end of another. Misaki falls prey to her mother's illness and passes away, Takumi is left to recollect the pieces of his life. From beginning to end, this story is not about his life after Misaki but rather his life with Misaki. His world is shambled but he will heal.
1. Lightening Tree

**A/N – Hello everyone! Thank you for viewing my story.**

 **I wanted to let you know ahead of time that this story will be more difficult to read as I took inspiration from William Faulkner, the author of the American classic "The Sound and the Fury". The story will seem fragmented but it's supposed to be, for whatever reason you would like to interpret.**

 **Also, I'm currently in college and updates will be sporadic! I promise the chapters will be worth the wait. Please excuse grammatical/spelling errors, I do not have an editor.**

 **Chapter 1.**

This story begins with the end of another. After centuries, millennia ceased with her. With every cough that racked her emaciated body, her soul left the world. She would hobble the garden, long unkempt and overgrown just as her own body, until she collapsed, her voice too weak to call out. After working an eighteen hour day, he found her among the lilies. Her frail body was covered by the tangled mass of leaves and stems, only her face remained surfaced in the sea. For a moment, he froze and saw the lioness that once existed. Another cough awakened her and she began to choke, air would not fill her lungs. She made muted grunts that awoke him from his disgruntled thoughts crossed with memory. With a startled gurgle, she was lifted to his arms and pat on the back like a newborn. Breathe in, out.

She was sentenced to the guest bedroom, her hospital bed positioned so she could spend her days overlooking her garden. As her legs lost complete function and she became wheelchair bound, she retained her uplifted spirits. Her golden brown eyes sparkled with an unquenchable fire for life which he could spend hours gazing into. However, as hospice care nurses began to visit everyday for the next few months, and she realized she had lost, she dulled to a breathless whisper. For a month, she would only eat when forced, she slept for days on end, and her medication became a demon that devoured all.

Her mind was almost gone when she suddenly pulled the wires from her arms and dragged her body from its sarcophagus. The thump of her body against the wood of the floor woke him from his nap between shifts. He sprinted to her room to see a mangled corpse dragging itself on the ground, blood trailing from open wounds of IV's. With a slight huff of surprise, he lurched backwards. She let out a gurgled sob in response, her body curling into a ball on the ground.

Ever slowly, he tiptoed back to her room, the scent of sterilized equipment and an unwashed body encasing him. He wrapped his arms around her frail body and picked her up from the floor then placed her in the wheelchair that had been sitting unused for weeks. Silence followed their movements, he pushed and she shoved. Yet soon enough, they were in the garden, under the trees that once bloomed brightly with vibrant cherry blossoms. Lightening had struck the tree, leaving it half dead, half alive. Often, she had joked that she and the tree lived the same life, but at least the tree was recovering. She was silent.

"Remember when we had first met?" He asked, his hands on her shoulders. She shivered in the mid-spring breeze, the sensation reverberating to his soul.

Her head rolled to one side, the drugs drowning her once more.

He knelt to her side, his hands grasping her frozen hands. "I remember." He continued, "You told me to not be so cruel to girls when I declined their confessions, to be considerate of their feelings. I wondered what kind of person you were to say such a thing, but that was before I knew you."

After a long pause, she squeezed his hands weakly. A blush crept on her cheeks and flourished onto her ears, her brows furrowing in frustration. "That's because you're an idiot! You were so cruel to them! I had to step in." She yelled angrily, her fists flying towards him.

"But I'm glad I did. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to meet my adorable girlfriend." He said, his lips curling into a sly smirk. "Fiancee."

"I had been living a life not worth living – a half-written, monochrome story with an uninspired author. But you, you came into my world and brought this brilliant light that brought the possibility of color to me. As we began to know each -"

"You stalked me!"

"As we began to know each other, I was shocked with an array of colors I had never seen. Every day, every adventure, I knew I loved you."

"U-U-Usui." Her face was scorching red, the setting sun, but she continued to scold him. "Don't say such rash things."

He clenched her hand harder, her delicate hands popping. "But it was true. I loved you so much, but not as much as I love you now. I always thought things would end differently."

"That I wouldn't die?" Her head rolled forward, her lips forming odd syllables that would not create words.

"We wouldn't die."

"Relax, I'm the only one dying. You need to take responsibility and help everyone through this time."

"What about me, Misaki?"

"I don't worry about you. You have always been able to handle yourself."

"Do you truly not understand how deeply I love you? Does my love not mean anything to you? How can you treat me like this?" His voice escalated with every word. Never before had he yelled, but his whole body shook in realization of what was to come. This was the farewell.

She pressed the IV button above her bed to pump more medicine, then rested her hand on his head, running her fingers through his blonde, combed locks. "Any man who would fly between England and Japan to see me every day after class in college obviously is insanely in love with me. Your love is the only reason I am still alive, you annoy me enough with it to keep me going. And I am not treating you like anything. You're acting like a child. I _am_ going to die, there is nothing we can do about it. I need you to be there for my mom and Suzanna."

"But me?"

"You will be fine. Life will go on." Her words, the world, slur.

His voice was barely audible yet cut through the silence, "Please, not now."

Slowly, her eyelids slid shut. The breeze cut through her body once more, then light filled her being. She was warm, glowing, the sun blazing on her shoulders as she lifts her legs out of the wheelchair one by one and onto the grass pathway at the end of the garden. Behind her, she hears the heartbroken scream of her husband. She turns to him, so too does the world, and places a firm kiss against his temple.

"I love you."

The world imploded, then disappeared from under their feet.

Usui did not attend her funeral. He broke the news to his mother and sister-in-law and helped them through their mourning for the following weeks, just as he had promised. Every night when he would return home, he would enter the guest bedroom and sit on the chair that would be next to her bed. For hours, he would gaze at the spot where she had been. Licht would join him, purring gently in an unusual act of kindness.

The medical bills were paid in full by the Walker family, condolences. Usui quit two of his jobs then, the Walker family also offering him a position in their infirmary. With this, he would visit his patients once or twice a month, then return home. In the weeks home, he would watch the ever gray world pass in a static lull.

Finally, the dam broke.

While packing away her clothes, he found the photo of them at her part-time job. Long ago, she had said she had gotten rid of it by mistake, but there was no mistake. She had had it that entire time. Misa-chan blushed, her brows furrowed down and her lips down turned as she was forced to take a picture with Usui.

Until that moment, he had not realized the abyss left in her wake. But as his memories returned, and he could not turn to Misaki and tease her about the photo, it came into focus. She was gone. Her ferocious attitude, her secret smiles of ecstasy, her overly blunt, determined personality: gone. He would not return home to a destroyed kitchen with scorch marks to the ceiling and burnt rice balls sitting, waiting, at the table, or her bent over her laptop in determination to seal a contract between countries. He would not wake in the morning and memorize every detail of her face as it furrowed and lifted during her dreams. She was dead.

His shell cracked. His body hunched forward and a loud, harsh sob lumped in his throat. His hand covered his mouth while his other hand rubbed the film of Misaki's face. For eternity, Usui sat in their closest with the picture pressed to his chest. The image branded his unrelenting mind. His tears faded as he reminisced.

The next morning, he opened the windows of every room of the house. The scent of the salty breeze and decomposing plant mater filled his lungs as he inhaled deeply, as though he had forgotten how to breathe. In the guest bedroom, he leaned out the window across from where the bed once sat, staring. The prominent and demanding brilliance of red tiger lilies swayed starkly from the rest of the keeled over plants in garden.

"This is so nice!" She murmured, stretching her arms above her head and smiling into the breeze. "What took you so long? I would have done this a month ago!"


	2. Typhoon Lullabies

**Chapter 2.**

The hazy buzz of the television could not drown his breathing. Exhale toxins, inhale roses. Four hundred and sixty-seven days later, her scent wafted throughout their home once more. As he came to, tip-toeing from his sleep, she nestled into his chest. Her hair, tangled and strewn across the pillow they shared, taunted his lips and nostrils. Soap and dewy roses filled his being, goose flesh raising on his arms.

"Were you in the garden again last night?" He whispered, his brow arched inquiringly and eyes half-lided.

She replied, half-conscious, "I can't sleep when I am not tired."

 _Sunlight cascaded from the window in tendrils._ She sat up, her legs crossed and her hand raised with an orange juice pouch in it. She turned to him, a sheepish smile in her eyes.

He rushed to her, wrapping her in his arms. "What happened?" He inquired.

Squirming, she tried to free herself from his overbearing grasp. "I was taking the stairs to the embassy and now I'm here." She replied, her nose wrinkling. She sighed and tapped her fingers against her chin. "They told me I have to take the day off. I don't understand it though, they're never going to be able to seal the Malaysian deal without me."

 _The moon, barely visible yet glorious, probably graced the doorway._ She laid in the garden, a damp washcloth burning her forehead. Faintly, the white sleeved woman spoke to her as Usui held her hand. Pass. Pass. Pass. Quit.

"Is there any way to treat it?" He asked, his voice frighteningly low.

"It's an autoimmune disorder. There are treatments, but no cure. It'll only slow it down."

"There's no way." She said, staring up from the bottom of the ocean.

Towering above her, Atlantis loomed. "Journey to Atlantis", at least. The clunking of wood and metal maintained a steady beat as the carts climbed the wooden structure and plunged down into a watery grave. Her mouth gaped as the screams echoed from the carts, her eyes bulging.

A tug on her arm drew her attention to her boyfriend. He raised his brows at her, a challenge in his eyes. "Turning back now? You know what that means." He teased.

She blew raspberries, grasping his arm with both hands. "You wish!"

In an hour, they were on the death machine. Her jaw was clenched and her spine was too straight. Usui resisted the urge to snort when she cringed away from every sound. As the workers came to check their seat belts, she huffed in defeat. This was one fight she would not run from.

The machine lurched forward, launching them up a steep mountain. She clenched her hands until her knuckles were white on the bar in front of her. Adrenaline coursed through her body, her stomach knotting painfully and her legs tingling. The end was near, the tracks topped off. In mere seconds, they went from touching the sky to biting the air as they zipped down. She turned to him, triumphant even in her fear, only to see him watching her and smiling in glee. Water sprayed up into the seats and a sharp right turn made her go rigid again. She sputtered and squinted while he laughed into the air.

A loop came, throwing them into the backs of their seats. Misaki screeched against the change of gravity, her hair whipping into her mouth. Usui intertwined their hands in her moment of weakness, her grip crushing his own.

A crash of metal and wood echoed through the house.

He had his arms around her, pulling her closer with urgency. With a start, she turned to him. Her gilded brown eyes gleamed fierce in the morning sun that came from the windows. "Usui?"

Tenderly, he pressed his forehead to her own, squeezing his eyes shut. His heart throbbed, his fingertips painfully aching.

"Usui?"

Languidly, she lifted her hands to his shoulders and shook him, her hands sending electricity through his spine. Roses bloomed in her hair, on her fingertips, inside him. They consumed him, their thorns slicing wildly. She brought her lips to his ear, her breath hot on his neck, and whispered, "Usui, I'm dead."

Grunting as he launched himself up from bed, Usui was shocked to see Suzanna mere inches from his face. Her arms were thrown back in surprise, although her face was stoic as usual. Her down turned eyes were graced by nostalgic thin eyebrows, raised ever so slightly.

"Usui?" She asked again.

Quickly, he regained his composer and demanded, "What are you doing here?"

She perched on the bed, her hands laid on her lap. "The garden, I want to fix it." They said, batting their eyes slowly.

"Oh," He stated numbly, his body submerged.

Silence settled in the air, on their shoulders, in their lungs. Suzanna gave a slight nod, releasing the pressure, and said, "I came to apologize. Hinata found every rake in the garden to step on and ended up ramming into the wheelbarrow we brought. I was hoping the noise didn't disturb you."

"Hm."

But a typhoon swept away the glimmering promise lands.

"Why don't you come outside? We can show you what plants we have so far." She said then left immediately after.

With a sigh, he heaved himself from the bed. His eyes lingered on her perfectly made side of the bed, untouched even in a storm. He drew his eyeglasses from their container and pushed them onto his nose before exiting the house to the yard.

His heart stopped.

Somehow, dirt was _everywhere_. Not only was there dirt, there was mud and water that drowned out the pavement leading to the back of the yard. Flowers in planters were turned on their side, and weeding had massacred not only the weeds, but the flowers that had semi-survived the last winter. The patio right before the garden was littered with equipment, as well as a mysterious crack that had formed on corner of it.

"I thought you wanted to fix the garden?" He questioned, using all his will power to not gasp in complete awe.

"We are! Although, destruction seems to be the only way to. Have you ever touched this place?" Hinata shouted, pouncing from his place beneath a bush with bread crusts hanging from his lips.

Suzanna came around from the front, carrying another bushel of flowers. She hushed Hinata, "Of course he hasn't, he has other things to do."

"So what compelled you?" Usui asked, sauntering towards the first string of uprooted plants.

Picking up a small daisy, Hinata took off the plastic container from its roots. He began burying the poor plant, the leaves barely visible above the flowerbed. "Well, it looked sad. I get you're busy, but even a chump like you should be able to keep up with housework." He said, nonchalant.

Such easy words to establish a challenge. How long had it been since someone had spoken to him so casually? "Perhaps. But at least I wouldn't have destroyed it while fixing it. What happened to the patio?" He responded, running a hand through his tangled hair.

Suzanna sat the plants at the first flowerbed, her eyebrows raised slightly. "Are you issuing a challenge against my dear husband?" She asked.

"What challenge? I would require a challenger of at least some skill." He replied with a smirk. He reached for a rusted trowel from the ground, his fingers wrapping around it loosely.

A faint blush of embarrassment spread on Hinata's cheeks and he steamed, "I will prove to you I am more than a challenger! I will be the winner!"

In only moments, spades flew and flowers were welcomed back to the earth. There was no competition though, Usui finished fifteen minutes before Hinata and Suzanna. He even helped them finish their side and fix the plants that had been badly abused by rough handling.

"It will be a miracle if any of these flowers survive after this carnage." Usui stated, his fingers on the lip of a petal that wilted sadly as he released it.

Hinata stiffened, pausing his work. He grabbed Usui's shoulders to turn him to face him. "Why didn't you come to the funeral?" He asked, his brows furrowed in hurt and frustration.

"Excuse me?" Don't lie.

"Why didn't you come to Misaki's funeral?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Usui muttered, his face turning away to the breeze.

"It matters because we lost Misaki, we didn't lose you but it felt like we did." Hinata said, tears brimming on his lashline. "I tried to understand, Suzanna tried to make me understand. But I need you to tell me now. I've waited so long to ask, I wanted to give you time to find closure but I haven't found mine yet because of you."

Usui followed his inquiry with silence.

"I don't want you to go to my funeral. I'd rather you just remember me as I am now, no matter what shape I am. Alive is better than dead." Misaki assured. Her fingers twiddled with the ends of hair, catching the light.

"What makes you think that I'll outlive you? You're too stubborn for that." Usui mocked. His hand caught hers and brought it to his lips. She rested her head on his shoulder, raining. It was raining. He was caught in the rain and she would scold him for coming home soaked.

Misaki blushed hotly and quickly shot her hand back from his hold. "Don't say something like that and then do that! It's totally alien." She snorted.

"You're always so serious, Kaichou." He teased. "Besides, I would never let you leave me so easily."

"Baka!" A reflection of millions of Misaki scolded in his ear, twisting the very fabric of time to create an insatiable void. "Why are you only honest with me?"

"I was weak."

"Weak?"

"Yeah."

Hinata put his fist up to Usui's face and brushed it against his chin. "I want to beat you to a pulp but it's obvious it wouldn't hurt you more than whatever you're going through right now." He said with a sigh. He stepped back, putting his arm around Suzanna and looking out over their handiwork.

"Where are the red tiger lilies?" Usui wondered offhandedly.

Suzanna tilted her head to the side, her eyes filled with curiosity. Misaki and her asked, "There were red tiger lilies?"

"I must have been mistaken." Usui mended, his eyes closing. "Thank you, both of you, for the help."


	3. Broken Mind

**Chapter 3.**

He stopped counting the days she had been gone.

Eventually, he stopped finding her mismatched socks in his laundry. He emptied her medicine cabinet, her pills returned to the pharmacy. The random strands of her hair stopped appearing in the dustpan during cleaning. Her favorite mug was hidden behind the plethora of cups he and company used. Her scent evaporated from her clothes, replaced by a musty odor due to a lack of wash and wear. If it weren't for the few photographs that rested here or there, it would have seemed that Misaki had never existed in this house. Even his mind had betrayed him, her image no longer as clear in his memories as it once was.

Usui wandered the gardens late at night, hand-in-hand with his mind. On the tip of his tongue was the putrid taste of bitterness and understanding. The grass beneath his feet wavered and gathered under his intentions but would never swallow. As he looked the clouded skies for judgment, a broken breath passed his lips and turned him back indoors.

Another sleepless night. Tomorrow, an inevitable restless day.

His alarm shook him from the abyss. His eyes blinked slowly and burned from the dryness of recollection. As he waited outside the train station, it seemed that today would be less of a drag than the normal cigarette as the clouded skies split into slivers of miracles.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Suzanna's coworker approaching and turned to greet her, "Hello, you must be Suzanna's friend."

"It's a pleasure to meet you at last, Usui." She gushed, her golden eyes squinting as she smiled brightly. With that, they bowed to each other respectfully and ushered on. Only minutes in, Usui could already tell that this woman would also not be a companion as she only spoke in compliments.

Their destination was a small bar tucked away in the shopping district. As Usui slid into the chair in the back corner of the room, his eyes flickered passed the wood walls to the bar made of a large, curved aquarium that was perfectly eye level with his date. Thus officially began their date of halfhearted responses and attention.

Almost as if waiting for him, a large, pink parrot fish appeared to dance for his attention behind his partner's face. It acted as entertainment for the night where there was none. The person across from him was unusually silent as she looked through the menu slowly. Not that he would notice.

The parrot fish zoomed between her ears again to chase away an intruder.

His peripherals clouded comfortably and he focused solely on the display before him. Walls and floors closed in slowly, shredding away his conscious and whims until he watched his own lips grimace responses and sip casually. He measured time with blinks and found he was only a wink away from the end.

Lightning stuck between his brows and coins fell into his skull as he launched out of his haze in haste. The acquainted punctuation of irises choked him with a burst of all-encompassing dread that filled his toes and tongue with cement. How long had it been?

"We haven't talked in awhile. Could you at least spare me a moment?" She interrupted his moment.

He tilted his head in sympathy and said,"Yes, my apologies. I was just thinking."

"Why are you dating?" She asked.

"I..." He responded, hopeful but dumbstruck.

She gently placed her fingertips on his half of the table in particular affection. "This doesn't seem like you at all," She murmured as if coddling a child.

"How would you know what seems like me?" Usui replied. He balled his hands under the table as he felt a twinge of heat in his chest.

"Because you rejected everyone at Seika." She replied, nonchalant. The foreign heat filled his ears and drowned his voice with every syllable of her sentence.

"Why bring that up?" He growled like a dog backed into a corner.

"This attitude isn't like you either." She shot back immediately.

He slammed his hands on the table, shouting through the echo of voices around him, in him. "You clearly do not know me, you thought I would be okay after you died!"

"Usui?!" She shrieked in ire. "You're scaring me!"

"You left me alone! You ignored _my_ pain! Why leave me to take care of your family? What of me, your husband? Haven't I suffered enough? Wasn't it torment enough that I was your caretaker in your death, but now you have ruined my mind! Everywhere I go, there is a memory of you that haunts me! I can't right myself, I'm always drifting, trying to understand. Trying to feel something other than your death." He shouted but now there was only silence and a thousand fireflies beaming. Around his neck, the collar broke and he swiftly left the bar.

The resounding footsteps that followed him brought pure anger and hatred to the forefront.

"Do _not_ follow me." He seethed as he turned blindly to her at the door and slammed it behind him in reverberating agreement.

Yet she did.

She encircled him in her very being, entangled him in a mass of paper cranes that thumbed through the gallery. Her lips ghosted softly over his flesh and he felt the purest form of bitterness in the form of hydroplaning over black ice. For once, the earth was not shattered and rebuilt because of a mere mortal but, instead, sloshed softly.

The mood of this world did not match the temperature of his mind and he stalked through the crowd, pushing and bumping shoulders to rile the insects. None budged for fear of the wrath of an animal in false death throes.

He stomped to the park, following the streetlight, and smashed his foot into the side of the swing sets. Electricity shot up his leg but the swing set was none the worse to wear. Angrily, he plopped down on a swing before choked chuckles left his throat. How had a forty years old man ended up throwing a tantrum on a swing set?

Sliding out of the seat onto the uncomfortable gravel beneath, he watched the skies as he did every night. His had struck gold and his search was over. Inside of him, his emotions spiraled uncontrollably without attachment. The thundering of his heart, even though it had been of anger, was bittersweet in his ears. His stomach was nauseous with raw nerve endings being assaulted by these previously untouchable emotions.

His phone rang. He reached to answer it but the tune stopped within a breath. Now useless, he placed his hand at his side and let the emotions play throughout his soul.

The chains next to him clinked harshly as a body fell into the seat. His eyes drifted over, half expecting the police, and was sent into a frenzy when he saw Minako Ayuzawa.

"Ah," He exhaled, sitting upright quickly. "What are you doing here?"

"Suzanna contacted me that your date wasn't very successful. She wanted to find you but I told her that I knew were you were and I already had you in my care. I'm sure she'll be here soon, nonetheless. She's worried about her poor mother too." She explained, her body swaying ever so slightly. The gray of her hair reflected white in the streetlights and made her seem as though she was an angel.

Usui took in her words quietly. However, he quickly became concerned that Minako was without her oxygen and IV. He wordlessly offered her his hands but she shook her head.

"You must return home, you need your medications and oxygen." He urged her.

"Did my daughter follow the regimen to a tee, as well?" She asked him and continued to sit.

Usui flinched at the mention of Misaki, his hands curling into fists again. "No, I suppose she didn't."

Minako reached out her loved and wrinkled hands to Usui's and loosened his fingers from his palms. "I always knew you would be perfect for Misaki because of that gentle heart. However, I didn't realize how much it would bleed and I'll take full responsibility for that." She stated, her lips quivering slightly.

"It isn't your fault that I am weak and can't move on. I hope I didn't disappoint you by my behavior tonight. I did try to begin dating again per your request but I couldn't." He whispered in embarrassment.

She motioned for him to sit down in the swing next to her again and he quickly joined her. In silence, they stared ahead at the playground for millennia.

"It is my fault that you feel you're weak," she replied at last, "Misaki asked Hinata, Suzanna and me to watch over you after her passing. Selfishly, we took advantage of you to fill the void left in her wake. However, by the time we were out of the final stages of grief, we misunderstood you and thought you were also healing. Misaki warned us that you were too stubborn to show us your pain but we didn't heed her warning."

"Misaki wanted you to watch over me?" He questioned redundantly, his hand reaching up to his cheek to wipe away a suspiciously watery substance.

"Absolutely. She also warned us that you are a head case and would over-analyze until you were crazy if we didn't help you through grieving as thoroughly and quickly as possible. We did absolutely nothing but weigh you down with our problems. I'm sure that you thought it was good, it gave you purpose, at the time. But this is the result from being a careless mother. The least I can do now is listen to Misaki at last." She revealed, her voice wavering.

"What else did Misaki tell you to do?"

"Quite a lot."

"Really?"

"Usui, how did you feel after the loss of your son?"

She should have just punched him instead. However, he swallowed back his pain and said, "Devastated. We never knew how much we could love until he was gone."

"But how did _you_ feel? I don't mean to pry at old wounds, however, I'm making a point that even Misaki had missed. You are a team but you're also an individual inside the team. An important part of healing, especially with a significant loss, is reflecting on yourself. One of Misaki's regrets was not hiring help for when her health began deteriorating rapidly. She knew that you caring for her put too much stress and grief on you. The other regret was being so selfish in the healing process after the loss of your child. She knew that it gave you purpose to care for her but then it took you years to process his death too." She said. She rose to her feet and walked to stand in front of him. There, she knelt to her knees and bowed.

"Please accept our apologies for not being more responsible of you." She pleaded, tears soaking into the ground beneath her.

Usui slid out of the swing once more and brought Minako up to kneeling and embraced her. "This isn't how this is supposed to go."

"Then for Misaki's sake, let me help you."

He inhaled sharply and began trying to explain the complex inside his mind. The confusion, anger, disgust, remorse, sorry and guilt took hours to loop into coherent sentences that clarified his own existence. Layers of pressure and madness began to unwind from his core and he felt a semblance of his former self emerge.

Hinata and Suzanna appeared eventually, dragging Usui and Minako to Minako's home to put her back to bed rest. Late as the night had become, Minako remained awake to listen and direct Usui in his thoughts, unraveling truth from damaging confusion. Hinata and Suzanna waited patiently in the kitchen, occasionally bring tea up to the two.

Then there was nothing left to say—at least for that day. They sat in comfortable silence, reflecting without broken dialogue in their heads.

Usui went to leave, resting his hand on Minako's forearm in farewell. Somewhere in their time together, she had drifted off to sleep without either of them noticing.

"Thank you for everything." He murmured then left the room.

Downstairs, he deeply thanked Hinata and Suzanna for their help before excusing himself to leave. He wanted to go home, he was ready.

At the front door, Usui did not hesitate to turn the handle and watch as the morning brilliance of the sunrise consumed all darkness.

 **A/N – Do not fear! This is not the end. At least one more chapter is due and then I can call this finished. I would like to say thank you to all the kind reviews and messages and I hope that you enjoy any of my upcoming work (if that happens). Once again, please excuse grammtical/spelling errors.**


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